The Footwork FA17 was the car with which the

Footwork Footwork may refer to: * Footwork (cricket) *Footwork (dance) *Footwork (genre), a genre of electronic music, also known as juke *Footwork (martial arts) Footwork is a martial arts and combat sports term for the general usage of the legs and ...

team competed in the

1996 Formula One World Championship The 1996 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 50th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. The championship commenced on 10 March and ended on 13 October after sixteen races. Two World Championship titles were awarded, one for Drivers ...

. It was driven by Dutchman

Jos Verstappen Johannes Franciscus "Jos" Verstappen (; born 4 March 1972) is a Dutch racing and rally driver, who competes in the European Rally Championship as a privateer. Verstappen competed in Formula One between and . Born and raised in Dutch Limburg, ...

, who moved from

Simtek Simtek (Simulation Technology) was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The Formula One (F1) engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved i ...

, and Brazilian Ricardo Rosset, who graduated from

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championship ...

Development

Footwork was bought by

Tom Walkinshaw Thomas Dobbie Thomson Walkinshaw (14 August 1946 – 12 December 2010) was a British racing car driver from Scotland and the founder of the racing team Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR). He was also involved in professional rugby union, as owner of ...

from one of the Arrows team's original founders,

Jackie Oliver Keith Jack Oliver (born 14 August 1942) is a British former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One between and . In endurance racing, Oliver won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in , the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1969, and t ...

, early in the season. thus became a write-off as the team's focus switched to . This was something of a disappointment, since the FA17 was competitive at the start of the year in the hands of

. Technical director Alan Jenkins left early on in the season bound for Stewart. Walkinshaw replaced him with

Frank Dernie Frank William Dernie (born 3 April 1950) is a British Formula One engineer. Dernie is credited with inventing active suspension, being the first engineer to use computer aided design, the first engineer to put a data logger on a formula one car ...

, who moved from Ligier along with Walkinshaw. The lack of development and the lack of power from the

Hart Hart often refers to: * Hart (deer) * Hart (surname) Hart may also refer to: Organizations * Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer * Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer * Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department store ...

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...

saw the team slip to the back of the grid by season's end. Hart had planned to build a V10 unit but did not have sufficient funds. Progress was further hampered by the team's testing contract with

Bridgestone is a Japanese multinational manufacturing company founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi (18891976) in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of (), meaning ...

; the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese tyre supplier preparing for entry into F1 in 1997. The FA17 was the first Arrows driven by

Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill (born 17 September 1960) is an English former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . Hill won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Williams, and won 22 Grands Prix acr ...

upon his signing for the team ahead of the 1997 season.

Race history

Throughout the season, Verstappen proved to be very much the faster Footwork driver, but his reliability record was poor, only finishing a single race in the first half of the season (at

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, where he finished sixth). He suffered numerous mechanical failures, including a sticking throttle which caused a huge accident at

Spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

which left him with permanent neck injuries. He also caused a major scare at

Imola Imola (; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna ...

when he left a pit stop early and ripped the fuel hose from its tank, covering the garage with flammable fuel. By contrast, Rosset was surprisingly steady for a rookie driver, finishing half the races, but was noticeably slower than his teammate. Ultimately, neither driver was retained for 1997; World Champion

made the surprising decision to join the team after being dumped by Williams, and

Pedro Diniz Pedro Paulo Falleiros dos Santos Diniz (; born 22 May 1970) is a Brazilian former racing driver, businessman and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in São Paulo, Diniz began karting aged 18 and achi ...

with his sponsorship money was chosen to be his number two. The team eventually finished ninth in the Constructors' Championship, with one point.

After Formula One

The Austrian racing driver

Fritz Glatz Friedrich "Fritz" Glatz (July 21, 1943 – ) was an Austrian racing driver from Vienna. He raced under the pseudonyms Pierre Chauvet and Frederico Careca as well as a number of others.

used a Footwork FA17 in the 2002

EuroBOSS The BOSS GP Racing Series is a motor racing series in Europe. The category originated in 1995 as the BOSS Formula series and evolved into the EuroBOSS Series. BOSS is an acronym that stands for Big Open Single Seaters. History The BOSS serie ...

series. At the race in

Most Most or Möst may refer to: Places * Most, Kardzhali Province, a village in Bulgaria * Most (city), a city in the Czech Republic ** Most District, a district surrounding the city ** Most Basin, a lowland named after the city ** Autodrom Most, moto ...

after a collision he became airborne and rolled the car. Glatz, driving under the pseudonym ''“Frederico Careca”'', died from internal bleeding and major vertebral injuries.

Complete Formula One results

( key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

References

* Arrows Formula One cars 1996 Formula One season cars {{F1-stub